RWBY – The Other We
Author's note: an extra scene for Volume 4 Episode 8 "A Much Needed Talk". Picking up from where Qrow goes for a walk.
...
"There's nothing else you wanna tell us?" Ruby asked her Uncle, feeling he still kept much from them, as the latter was about to go for a walk. He looked up at a lone raven perched on a branch and the bird tilted its head, seemingly giving him a cautioning look.
"Not tonight." he replied and slowly distanced himself from the children.
The raven took off as a single piece of wood fell out of the small campfire. It soared over the large forest, easily traveling distances that would have taken days for anyone on-foot. Spotting the fires of a settlement from afar, it soon closed in and dove, shooting past a couple of shady, rugged men and women, who were sitting at their make-shift, planked posts in the trees and behind elaborate spiked barricades on the ground. All of them snapped to attention and stood as the bird approached, flying past them, into the heart of the dark tribe. A bonfire burned bright in the center, surrounded by rows of huts and tents of varying sizes. The bird landed in front of the largest of them, close to the empty patch of land around the fire. The guardsmen standing on both sides of the entrance did not even bat an eye when the pitch black avian flashed and morphed into the likeness of Raven Branwen. She strode in, pushing the hanging fabric aside and was immediately greeted by a slightly husky female voice, coming from a dim corner.
"Look what the night dragged in." Through the visor of her masks, Raven's red eyes fell upon the woman sitting on a large chair that might as well have been a throne. With her pair of boots at the entrance, she was bare-foot, with wrappings from the waist-down to barely her toned mid-thighs. She wore a suggestively open vest that showed off a defined abdomen and shoulders. Her face was barely visible in the faint light of the nearly melted candles. One of her eyes was fire-red. The other, bright-green. Her strong features, a square jaw and crooked nose was framed by wild and unruly hair, shaven on the sides and reaching just below her ears that had several small rings, in both lobes. She had a playful smile that curved further as Raven removed her mask to reveal her unamused expression. "Evening, beautiful!" Raven's eye subtly twitched at her forwardness, as she gave her a small glare that only made the woman, barely more than half her age, more amused.
"You're in my tent." Raven stated with only mild irritation, as if it was a more common occurrence. She walked over to a table cluttered with pouches, maps, dust crystals, dishes of food on plundered plates and an oil lamp she lit.
"And you're having a bad day. I can see the knots from here." she referred to Raven's tenseness and that her muscles needed relaxing. Raven slightly turned her head to the right to shoot her a wary look from the corner of her eye, then turned back to look at her maps. "I could cool you off." the woman offered. "Or warm you up?" Raven's eye moved to the corner, again. "I could make you tingle, too..." Another twitch. "Or turn you brittle. A dried out husk." came the small poem, riddle and warning.
"Isn't that the opposite of what you should be about?" Raven asked without looking at her, not entirely ignoring the oddly playful threat.
"Well, we're both just disappointments, aren't we?" the enigmatic woman shrugged her shoulders.
"Hmpf. To who?" Raven indignantly retorted, without raising her voice or stopping. "The parents neither of us had growing up? The schools? Or the world? Don't make me laugh."
"Oh, I wish I could." the woman teasingly replied and Raven groaned. "Free-will's a gift, after all." the woman said with some smugness, leaning back, into the chair. "Or more like a double-edged sword...if you ask the gods." she mockingly added. Raven continued to observe a map and began marking spots on it. "So, anyway..." The woman's voice briefly became serious. "Does she have it?" came the question, echoing Raven's.
"No." Raven stated.
"Does he?" came another question and Raven paused, before answering
"I don't think he does. He's afraid." Raven said of her brother.
"And you're calm as a cucumber." Raven threw her a quick sneer, at that.
"I'm not afraid." she told her.
"A little fear can be a good thing. How else could anyone survive? If they don't have strength, fear is the next best thing that'll keep them alive." the woman was preaching to a one-woman choir and also, speaking of strength, a one-woman army. "And it also makes things even easier for us." She likely referred to their raiding of villages and the chaos they caused. "Sometimes too easy." she added with some annoyance. "Our little trips are almost boring me." She smiled as she said it, showing a side that clearly enjoyed how they survived, despite a lack of challenge it gave her.
"Get a hobby." Raven told her.
"I think I have one." The woman meaningfully told her, as she also seemed to be taking small pleasure in carefully prodding Raven's nerves. The latter slowly turned to fix her with one last glare, before she put the map down, turned off the lamp and started to leave.
"Your bed is right over there." the woman gestured.
"I'm not tired." Raven replied.
"The lady does protest too much." She was told.
"Good night, Verna." Raven firmly but carefully shut her down and stepped outside.
"Pleasant dreams, Raven." The woman named Verna said, to no one, in an amused, if slightly disappointed tone. Her still alluring visage - despite the obvious look of an outlaw - suddenly faded, as every candle was snuffed out by a gust of wind that could not have come from the outside. In the darkness, her eyes lit up with an eerie glow, exuding confidence, malice, passion and above all, power.
[Cue the credits with the Maiden-fight soundtrack from Volume 3 Episode 7]
Starring the voices of
Qrow Branwen - Vic Mignogna
Jaune Arc - Miles Luna
Ruby Rose - Lindsay Jones
Nora Valkyrie - Samantha Ireland
Lie Ren - Neith Oum
Kali Belladonna - Tara Platt
Blake Belladonna - Arryn Zech
Ghira Belladonna - Kent Williams
Sun Wukong - Michael Jones
Raven Branwen - Anna Hullum
Verna/Spring - ?
Author's note: In case anyone got the feeling Spring was trying to hit on Raven, that was my intent.
Verna is the Feminine form of Vernon, sometimes associated with the Latin word vernus "spring". It has been in use since the 19th century and coincidentally, to my great delight, it starts with a "v". I like names that start with that.
I'd love the Spring Maiden to be a tomboyish, bad-ass bandit, rolling with Raven's tribe and for the latter to be just a little bit wary of her power. Would give their "relationship" and interactions an interesting dynamic. Someone as powerful as Raven being cautious around her. She'd have respect for her.